Raining Red Balloons
by CJtheCregg
Summary: Song fic to Dana Glover's 'Rain'. Childhood story of Syl up the the escape, including a little about what Syl's surrogate mother went through.


Title: Rain  
  
Author: Jacey925  
  
Rating: PG13  
  
Disclaimer: God knows, that I could never write a song as fantastic as the one I used, by Dana Glover (called 'Rain'). and the character of Syl isn't mine, nor are any of the places mentioned. I do how ever own Syl's mother's character, Grace.  
  
Dedication: For Lexie, always. For Dana Glover (LOL, like I actually know her...) for writing and singing such an inspiring song, with perfect lyrics.  
  
A/N: I truly recommend that you download 'Rain' by Dana Glover, or hey, buy the CD - I know I plan too, and listen to that song, while reading this!  
//Rain//  
  
//Rain//  
  
//Rain, Her mother gave her a name on a weary day  
  
24 hours of pain then she gave her away  
  
Into the arms of another family  
  
Into a life of confusion and misery//  
  
~~~~  
  
They grabbed her from the streets and threw her in th back of a van. She was young and alone, and she spent all her time huddled up in the corner of the cold concrete cell that they locked her in.  
  
She didn't really understand what was happening, or why they were doing this to her. She'd never done anything wrong.. She began to cry. Was this because she stole from her Momma's purse? Her momma had kicked her out onto the streets, and sold her to the man down the road. She was only 12 years old.  
  
Little Gracie, so small and sweet, and she was treated like shit. She was used and abused, and then they threw her away like a used needle... they made her use those too.  
  
One day, they took her from her cell, and tied her too a bed. Everything went black, and when she woke up again, she was on her own mattress on the cold hard floor. All she's knows is that as time went on, she got bigger and bigger. she wasn't stupid, she knew that she had a baby in her. And god help her, if anyone took her child away from her.  
  
She tried to run twice. Both times in the cold, dark night. The ground was covered in snow, and she had bare feet.  
  
The second time she tried, she would have made it. She knows that she would have made it, but her little baby, her little Rain started kicking harder, and suddenly all she could feel was the pain. The soldiers caught her and tied her another table.... and this time she stayed awake. Sometimes she thinks that it would have been easier to be unconscious like the first time.  
  
Rushed thoughts fill her head as she gasps through the pain, 'My momma gave me away, just like this. How can I do this to my little girl, so small, so sweet?' She cried as they took her baby away, and yelled and screamed at them, "No. No. No. Give my baby back! Give me Rain..."  
  
She shrunk back as the blows came her way, and whimpered in pain. Inside her head she yelled at the man who was kicking her ribs.. But she knew better than to open her mouth again.  
  
They left her locked up for days. weeks.. And then they took her away again, and left her on the side of the road, to be picked up by a strange man...  
  
~~~~  
  
//Rain, day after day in her room where the walls are bare  
  
No dream exists in the eyes of her empty stare  
  
Night after night in her room with no one to care  
  
She lays her head down to cry and whispers a prayer//  
  
//Oh woah//  
  
~~~~  
  
Syl sat in her cell, looking at the wall. She frowned, cause, really, it hadn't changed colour in the last 2 hours. She sighed, and lay back on her bunk. 'Really,' she thought to her self, 'It isn't fair that they get to be outside in the sun... even if they do have to do drills.' She peered out the thin slit of a window in the top of the wall. She could see her brothers and sisters playing.. Well not really playing, but having more fun than she was having. 'Hah. Fun.' She said, snorting to herself. 'Yeah right.'  
  
She sat back down on her bed, and curled up, and started to cry. There was nothing to do, no where to go.. Nothing left to see, cause what could there be, when all there was, was emptiness and anger?  
  
Sometimes, she wondered, how it all began... they weren't allowed to talk about things like that.. But they couldn't stop her from thinking. How did she end up there. Did her mother give her up? Why? It wasn't fair. At all.  
  
She sighed, and wiped her tears off onto the tattered pillow case that covered the pillow that felt vaguely like a rock. 'Good soldiers don't cry.' She reminded herself. She snorted. 'Oh yeah.' She muttered, "Like I'm actually a good soldier. If was, I'd be out there in the sun, with Maxie and Tinga.. And Krit."  
  
~~~~  
  
//Oh God there must be some mistake  
  
But no one's ever loved me  
  
I'd like to believe in you and I try  
  
But I'm just so lonely//  
  
//Rain//  
  
//Rain//  
  
//Rain, she's got a smile in her heart no one's ever seen  
  
She's got a life in her mind and a crave to dream  
  
She walks alone on her way to a secret place  
  
And fills her soul up with tears  
  
Such a silent space  
  
Oh woah//  
  
~~~~  
  
Syl never smiles anymore. She stopped smiling after the one time she did, and got sent to Psy Ops for it. Her heart aches, at the memory, of the perfectly round red balloon that floated over the gravel courtyard. She remembers when Lydecker cursed out loud - something he never did around them - and then shot the balloon down. Later he told them what it was, telling them that it was evil... but Syl never believed him, after all, how could something so beautiful be evil?  
  
As she marches through the slushy snow, that makes the ground slippery and cold, even through the thick soled combat boots - three sizes too big - that she wears, she makes a silent wish 'Oh God. Blue Lady, just get me out of here.'  
  
Late that night, once darkness had fallen; only a few guards strolled the boundary of Manticore and her brothers and sisters were long asleep, Syl slipped from her cot in the dorm room she'd been moved back into, and quietly tiptoed towards the window.  
  
Just as she was opening it, he oldest brother, Zack, whispered her name, harshly, "Syl!"  
  
Syl turned with a slightly guilty look on her face, and nodded, "Yes Zack?"  
  
Zack padded across the floor towards her, "Syl, where could you possibly be going at this time of the night?"  
  
Syl looked over her shoulder, out the window and past the fence line. "Out of here.." she muttered quietly.  
  
Zack nodded. "3 minutes little sister. Give me 3 minutes and I'll be with you."  
  
Syl gazed at him in astonishment, as Zack went from cot to cot, walking a select few, until there was a group of 15 by the window. He nodded at her, "To the special place Syl."  
  
Syl slipped out of the window, followed by her siblings, and they quietly made their way up onto the roof, where their special place was.  
  
As they stood there, Zack giving directions, Syl tuned him out and crouched down in front of the alter that her brother Ben had made. She picked up a handful of pebbles off the rough surface, and one at a time, she kissed they and placed them in front of the tiny picture of the Blue Lady.  
  
"For my mother.. For my father.. For Eva, For Jack .." she murmured quietly, tears running down her checks. 'Good soldiers don't cry.' She thought to herself. She paused and looked at the sky, and smiled to herself, "For the red balloon."  
  
~~~~  
  
//Rain, one tattered shoe on the ledge, one in midair  
  
She feels a whisperin' breeze rushing through her hair  
  
She lifts her face to the sky in complete despair  
  
And cries aloud in the night with her very last prayer//  
  
~~~~  
  
Syl stood silently next to her brothers and sisters, on the ledge of the roof. Quietly, in pairs, they jumped, and hit the ground running. Running towards the border fence, as fast as they could, jumping it and disappearing into the dark woods that surrounded the facility.  
  
Syl was at the end of the line, and she stood, holding tightly onto Krit's hand, and liking the feeling of warmth that shot up her arm every time he squeezed her hand. She smiled bravely at him, and he brushed her check with his hand. "It's okay Sylly.' He whispered.  
  
She lifted her face to the sky, and in the darkness, saw the red balloon floating, freely over her. As loudly as she could, without alerting anyone, she uttered her last plea, before she too, jumped "Please God. Blue Lady. Let me be free."  
  
And she jumped, and ran.  
  
~~~~  
  
//Oh God there must be some mistake  
  
But no one's ever loved me  
  
But if there's something more in my life you can make  
  
Here I am won't you show me//  
  
//And then the clouds begin to roll  
  
And the peace replaced her pain  
  
And on her face and in her soul  
  
She felt the drops of that same, same,//  
  
//Rain//  
  
//Pourin' Rain//  
  
~~~~  
  
She runs through the forest, not even turning back when she hears the gun shots ring out. Krit grabs at her arm, and pulls her, almost dragging her through the snow. It occurs to her, ironically so, as his lanky figure moves, one step for every three of hers, that he is in fact, two years younger than her.  
  
She wonder's briefly, where Maxie, Jondy, Brin and Tinga are. and the others. It occurs to her that it might have been Zack who was shot.. she recognized his cry. She feels her foot get stuck in a root, and Krit carry on dragging her along. Her ankle snaps at the same time that her heart tears.  
  
She's left behind everything she ever knew, every tie and connection with where she cam from... and to follow what? A red balloon.....  
  
~~~~  
  
//I need your love to rain down on me//  
  
//Rain//  
  
~~~~  
  
The End 


End file.
